Students from 19 British universities have occupied floors, lecture halls and buildings demanding condemnation of Israel, responding to UN declared war crimes in Gaza last month.

Institutions such as Strathclyde, Sheffield, Newcastle and Leeds called for university statements condemning Israeli war crimes, as well as a boycott on Israeli goods and foreign aid to be sent to Gaza.

With the country now ‘officially’ in recession, after the worst slump in gross domestic product (GDP) since 1980, unemployment is on the rise in all industries with predictions of two million jobless in 2009. Though quarterly student loans means that Scottish students are less affected, a high proportion of Napier’s international students relying on part-time jobs are less lucky.